zenmonkey's multilingual adventures of a traveller

[rdearman]

errr... you fail to mention why you have a dagger on the books? Afraid they'll be stolen?

Ha, why not? Let's go with that.
It's actually a letter opener that I keep on my desk - I inherited it from my grandfather.

Your letters must be rougher than the ones i get.

[zenmonkey]

Been working on my Arabic 'alphabet' app but needed a break. So I decided to start up the the Tzotzil resource page. And I need to write a review of Laughlin's book ('Amazing' isn't enough).

My notes ... to be straightened out before I put out as a resource page.

---

Tzotzil/Tsotsil Resources

(wikipedia extract)
Tzotzil (native name: Bats'i k'op) is a Maya language spoken in the Mexican state of Chiapas. In Central Chiapas, some primary schools and a secondary school are taught in Tzotzil. Tzeltal is the most closely related language to Tzotzil and together they form a Tzeltalan sub-branch of the Mayan language family. Tzeltal, Tzotzil and Ch'ol are the most widely spoken languages in Chiapas.

There are six dialects of Tzotzil with varying degrees of mutual intelligibility, named after the different regions of Chiapas where they are spoken: Chamula, Zinacantán, San Andrés Larráinzar, Huixtán, Chenalhó, and Venustiano Carranza.

Centro de Lengua, Arte y Literatura Indígena (CELALI) suggested in 2002 that the name of the language (and the ethnicity) should be spelled Tsotsil, rather than Tzotzil. Native speakers and writers of the language are picking up the habit of using s instead of z.
(end extract)

Number of native speakers is about 229000 (a third are monolingual).

Below are a few resources for Tzotzil / Chamula and Ch’ol. Obviously not exhaustive, feel free to reach out to me to ask questions.

links
Wikipedia entry - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzotzil_language
Omnilglot entry - https://www.omniglot.com/writing/tsotsil.htm
Ethnologue entry - https://www.ethnologue.com/language/tzo
OLAC resources in and about the Tzotzil language (really great links) - http://www.language-archives.org/language/tzo
Native language entry - http://www.native-languages.org/tzotzil.htm
Endangered languages entry ttp://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/8603

An On-line Tzotzil Grammar (includes dialogues and recordings) - http://www.zapata.org/Tzotzil/
Survival phrases in Tzotzil - http://www.globalencounter.net/languages-tzotzil/
Glosbe on-line dictionary - https://glosbe.com/en/tzo

Tzotzil dictionary (spanish) - https://www.sil.org/system/files/reapda ... onario.pdf

Books
Tzotzil Clause Structure by Judith Aissen
"The Mayan Languages- A Comparative Vocabulary” John M Dienhart - electronic version http://maya.hum.sdu.dk/ (database doesn’t work)
Los elementos del Tzotzil colonial y moderno (in Spanish). García de León, Antonio
Sk'op Sotz'leb: El Tzotzil De San Lorenzo Zinacantan (in Spanish). Haviland, John
The Great Tzotzil Dictionary of San Lorenzo Zinacantán. Laughlin, Robert M. (1975).
The Great Tzotzil dictionary of Santo Domingo Zinacantán: with grammatical analysis and historical commentary. Laughlin, Robert M. (1988).
Chano Bats'i K'op: Aprenda Tsotsil (in Spanish) (["Learn Tzotzil"] Vázquez López, Mariano Reynaldo (2004).
Ivresse et désenvoûtements : Edition français-espagnol-tsotsil trilingual stories
Article: Abrégé de grammaire de la langue Tzotzil avec texts d'aprés le manuscrit du R. P. Don Manuel Hidalgo. Rev. Ling., 19: 170-88
Tzotzil Grammar - Cowan, Marion M.
A Descriptive Grammar of the Tzotzil Language as Spoken in San Bartolome de los Llands, Chiapas, Mexico (dissertation) - Sarles, Harvey B.

Youtube - Tzotzil language - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPImJTkaMfQ

and as a plus ... Ch’ol - dictionary http://www.sil.org/mexico/maya/chol-tum ... io-ctu.htm

[zenmonkey]

Guys, guys, just discovered my copy is signed by the author!!

Here is my review.

Amazing is perhaps too short a review but Laughlin’s dictionary also covers grammar and history. These volumes are a find for me - the first volume is a signed copy to “a fellow riddler”.

The first chapters cover the history of the study of the language and creation of the dictionary - it reads like a mystery novel - the unknown Z - the anonymous author of a primary resource. Laughlin touches on the missionaries ethnographic role and what they recorded (or purposely left out) with regards to religion.

There is an interesting comparison with other colonial dictionaries - touching on the inherent inconsistencies and the analytics he carried out to consider inclusion / exclusion of different source entries.

He also relates how the Diccionario Grande went from the hands of Archbishop Orozco y Jimenez to Dr Nicolas Leon to Paul Wilkinson/William Gates to Robert Garrett with great detail on the lives and language studies of these men and their ethnolinguistic efforts and the literary archeology he had to perform in writing/editing the dictionary.

Laughlin includes his own sketch of colonial grammar. These forty pages are a strong foundation to learning the language.

And here is the review from the person I think the dedication was intended for.

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[Jar-Ptitsa]

I've got a sword letter opener as well. A spanish person gave it to me maybe it's old.

They are really nice, and if you open an envelope with the sword, it's much neater although I had forgotten and it's in my cupboard. Maybe it's a Spanish-speakers' tradition, I didn't see them in Belgium or England.

[Jar-Ptitsa]

errr... you fail to mention why you have a dagger on the books? Afraid they'll be stolen?

...It's actually a letter opener that I keep on my desk - I inherited it from my grandfather.

I'm relieved to hear that...I was originally a little worried it might be instrumental to learning Samoan.

hahahahaa


Samoan is maybe not dangerous then, but it's instrumental to learning English!!!!



My dagger (see on the Oxford dictionary) has a case as well (on the vocab book).

[zenmonkey]

Finally got back to writing my Arabic 'alphabet' app and am almost finished with it - most likely will do the build and prep for the Apple review tomorrow. So maybe it will be released in a week. I am quite happy to finish off this work - even if I had to simplify it a bit from my initial plan - at this point I won't be adding sound files or grouping letters by a 'sounds like' learning method - mostly sticking to the abjadi and hija'i letter orders.

I'm glad I'm finishing this off because I want to spend a little time updating the older languages apps, fixing a few bugs and then start on a new Yiddish platform and a Tibetan consonant learning tool.

Too many projects...

[zenmonkey]

Well, I've finished the new Arabic script app and updated a few of the older ones (Hebrew, Ukrainian, Greek) but this means that my language learning has suffered. My italki Tibetan class was spent on two sentences.
That's right. No exaggeration - two sentences and I didn't get the full meaning of the second one...

So much for the heart sutra - we've completed part of it but I'm not sure this is the best use of my time at this point.
I'll go over my notes this week and decide what to do.

Hebrew italki was also iffy this morning - the teacher is excellent as always but I felt stuck and, partially due to lack of sleep (hello programming binge) I wasn't particularly fluid. Another week of work, I need to focus on.

Which brings me to the study - my logging was ok this month. I might even take the time to log into the study and the 6WC this month. maybe.

Now I also need to promote the new app, complete my work projects and get some new consulting stuff going. Not sure where I'm going to find the time...

[zenmonkey]

Oh, oh. I fell down the Internet hole tonight. Started some web promo for my new app but while I was updating some of the older stuff I decided to look into the Cherokee Syllabary. How it was created and how later it had some influence on a dozen or more African languages.

And I got no language learning done tonight. But I did start a new app --- looks like the Cherokee Syllabary will be the next script to be crunched through the monkey mill. It's an odd construction - I can't say that personally I find it as aesthetic as Georgian or as beautiful as Tibetan but it has something going for it.

Aside from adding this as a possible resource for other learners it is not a target language. Having said that I really want to learn more about its invention.

Screen Shot 2017-11-03 at 00.39.03.png

Oh, and does it show up in the browser?
Here is my name written out in Cherokee:

ᎡᎤᎮᏂᎣ

[Ani]

Doesn't show for me

[Jar-Ptitsa]

Yes, Georgian is amazing, so pretty, but Cherokee looks nice as well. It's like Sinhala, which has got those Ꭳ type of letters (or they seem like that).

Some of the Cherokke letters, near the beginning of your screen shot look like the treble clef. I mean the 4th and 5th ones.